Wednesday, October 31, 2012

I have just seen this post at Online Personals Watch about " A Record-Breaking FY2012 ""WhiteLabelDating paid out over USD80 million in revenues to its top-tier and fast-growing partners. "

Mark Brooks had published a comparative study about White Label Dating sites this year.

Free online dating sites are only marketing tools to send prospective customers to paid online dating sites.PlentyOfFish (POF) as the biggest freemium dating site has a revenue in the range of USD40 million.PlentyOfFish also owns and operates several white label online dating sites which uses to receive payments from paid daters.

The IAC (Match, Chemistry, OkCupid, Meetic Group, People's Media Communities, SinglesNet, DateHookUp and more) is the biggest online dating operator and receives a revenue in the range of USD 700 million from its dating business unit.

In a recent article at Paid Content, The Guardian revealed "Guardian News & Media's latest annual operating loss grew 42 percent from GBP33.1 million to GBP44.2 million (USD69 million) thanks to the costs of digital investment and of ongoing staff cutbacks. Digital revenue, a significant part of which is dating classifieds, grew 16.3 percent to GBP45.7 million."

So a big company will never use a white label dating company to power its online dating site. "WhiteLabelDating provides the dating software, membership database, payment processing, customer support, hosting infrastructure and much more. You provide your brand, website design and marketing and we do the rest." When you use a while label dating solution, you really do not own anything, you spend your money in marketing, but you do not own the database of clients, if you want to leave or launch a dating site by your own, you will lose everything.

How WhiteLabelDating had reached those big numbers of its revenue?Because if you check some of their partners they really do not have traffic at all, like PlentyMoreFish or the dating category at the Independent.(Just surprised to see PlentyMoreFish redirects to PlentyOfFish from USA, Canada, Brazil and Australia. Remember PlentyOfFish Media Inc. had sued PlentyMoreFish but lost circa 2011)

The Meetic Group is in the range of 760,000 paid subscribers, and suppose the same applies for the WhiteLabelDating company. They claimed to power "over 7,600 sites across 7 countries for a vast network of international partners whose database totals over 16 million members." In August 2012 alone, over 775,000 members joined a dating site powered by WhiteLabelDating, with the company predicting to break through the "1 million new members a month" milestone in the upcoming months.

7,600 sites with less than 100 paid members on AVERAGE each one?

Is there any other explanation? Like are they running some big adult online dating sites ?orcould some of those partners are using white label dating sites to launder money?

Sunday, October 28, 2012

AbstractMany studies show that the basic personality factors of neuroticism, extroversion, and conscientiousness are important predictors of marital satisfaction. However, little is known about their combined effects. The configurations of the basic personality factors form eight personality types: spectating, insecure, sceptical, brooding, hedonistic, impulsive, entrepreneurial, and complicated (Torgersen, 1995). In this article, we examine the role of personality types in estimating the level of marital satisfaction. One hundred sixty-four married couples completed questionnaires on the NEO (Neuroticism-Extroversion-Openness) Personality Inventory-Revised to determine their personality types and ENRICH (ENriching Relationships Issues, Communication and Happiness). The two-way ANOVA test showed that the entrepreneurial and hedonistic personality types, both men and women, which are characterized by a combination of low neuroticism and high extroversion, presented higher scores on marital satisfaction. Among males, the sceptical type gained the same level of marital satisfaction as the hedonistic type. Conversely, sceptical women reported the least marital satisfaction scores. Moreover, among men, the insecure type, which is a combination of high neuroticism and low extroversion, reported the lowest marital satisfaction; among women, the insecure type reported a level of marital satisfaction just above that of the skeptical type. This research could open a new window for premarital studies.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Remember:Social discovering, social dating is ... vaporware. WorldWide, there are over 5,000 -five thousand- online dating sitesbut no one is using the 16PF5 (or similar) to assess personality of its members!but no one calculates similarity with a quantized pattern comparison method!but no one can show Compatibility Distribution Curves to each and every of its members!but no one is scientifically proven!The only way to revolutionize the Online Dating Industry is:* using
the 16PF5 normative personality test, available in different languages
to assess personality of members, or a proprietary test with exactly the
same traits of the 16PF5 and * expressing
compatibility with eight decimals (needs a quantized pattern comparison
method, part of pattern recognition by cross-correlation, to calculate
similarity between prospective mates.)

My bet: the new CEO will launch a new compatibility (personality profiling) site using copycats of the 16PF5 test soon.I had challenged them to offer compatibility distribution curves.I will be posting screenshots and insightful comments soon.

The Simpsons, Apple, Facebook, LinkedIn, WordPress, Google, Hotmail,
Yahoo, YouTube, Blogger, Wikipedia, Bing, Twitter, Skype are BIG successes in
Argentina!!!I have the theory that if something is successful in Argentina, it could be a success in the World.
If it can NOT be a success here in Argentina, it will definitely NOT be a success in the World.
NO
online dating company (for serious daters) has success here in Argentina nor Brazil or other Latin American country.

In a previous post I had written about latest IAC's results.Here is a table with paid subscribres.

It proves what I had said before:"Match is stagnated and cannibalizing OkCupid, SinglesNet, Meetic, DateHookup, People's Media Communities and other rotten online dating companies they had acquired since Blatt began his tenure as CEO of IAC. They urgently need to innovate or die"

"OKCupid says to Online Dating Industry to Innovate or Die""Tue Feb 05, 2008 1:48 amYagan's session, titled “Where’s Dating 2.0? The Lack of Innovation in the Online Dating Industry,” will contrast the evolution of other consumer Internet verticals with the relative standstill of online dating sites over the last decade......“Our industry is missing the revolution, focusing on superfluous bells and whistles, like background checks and video-dating while ignoring the needs, desires, and expectations of singles,” said Yagan. “Why is it that sites like Digg and Facebook are free but Match and eHarmony charge almost USD1,000 per year for membership? Our industry must find a way to adapt to the business models and user experiences that singles expect in a Web 2.0 world.” ..."

MY CONCLUSIONS:Match is stagnated and cannibalizing OkCupid, SinglesNet, Meetic, DateHookup, People's Media Communities and other rotten online dating companies they had acquired since Blatt began his tenure as CEO of IAC.They urgently need to innovate or die, but .... they had chosen the wrong person to manage Match,i.e. he is the kind of person who can cook a barbecue under the water, he is a smoke seller, but he is not going to innovate in nothing.

I had reviewed over 55 compatibility matching engines intended for serious dating since 2003, when I had discovered "the online dating sound barrier" problem.

The only way to revolutionize the Online Dating Industry is:* using the 16PF5 normative personality test, available in different languages to assess personality of members, or a proprietary test with exactly the same traits of the 16PF5 and * expressing compatibility with eight decimals (needs a quantized pattern comparison method, part of pattern recognition by cross-correlation, to calculate similarity between prospective mates.)All other proposals are NOISE.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Research on the social-cognitive process of transference and the relational self has shown that when an individual meets someone new who resembles a significant person in his/her life, the significant-other representation in memory is activated and applied to the new person (Andersen & Chen, 2002). Accordingly, the individual then infers that the new person has characteristics of the significant other, likes (or dislikes) the new person in a similar way, and behaves toward the new person in a manner specific to the prior relationship. Although considerable research has tracked the process and its consequences in the lab, little work has explored the real-world implications of this phenomenon. Over the course of an academic semester, we tracked self-reported relationship closeness of 142 first-year college roommates as a function of how much the roommate resembled a positive significant other from an individual’s life. Results indicated that greater self-reported significant-other resemblance in a roommate predicted more closeness with this roommate over time. These results held over and above the predictive value of one's more general attachment style and point to the significance of transference in everyday life. In particular, resemblance to a significant other has important implications for how new relationships develop.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Partner choice is strongly affected by similarity in physical and psychological characteristics.Although there is a popular belief that dogs share similar personality characteristics with their owners, no studies have yet addressed the topic. Here, we tested for associations between the dog and owner personality in two countries (Austria and Hungary) and found significant positive correlations between owners and their dogs in all the five investigated personality dimensions (neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness). This similarity could not be attributed solely to the owners' self-projection, since the similarity in the first four dimensions was also significant when an independent peer person assessed the dog instead of the owner. The similarity was not affected by the length of ownership, however, we found cultural differences in the correlation pattern; more and stronger correlations were found in the Hungarian sample. Moreover, in multi-dog households the dogs' similarity patterns complement each other, suggesting possible differences in the dogs' role. Our results provide the first evidence that dogs do resemble their owners suggesting potential applied utility as well as indicating that dog–owner relationship could be a useful model of human social relationships.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Unfortunately the authors had failed to take into account all the new research in theories of romantic relationships development, which says: "Compatibility is all about a high level on personality* similarity* between prospective mates for long term mating with commitment"*personality measured with a normative test.*similarity: there are different ways to calculate similarity, it depends on how mathematically is defined. i.e. STRICT PERSONALITY SIMILARITY and not “meet other people with similar interests”

Online Dating for serious daters does not need to be more social, it needs to be more effective/efficient. It needs to reduce the false positives problem.The Online Dating Industry needs innovations but they will come from only one source: the latest discoveries in theories of romantic relationships development with commitment.Only 3 major discoveries can help to revolutionize the online dating industry.I) Several studies showing contraceptive pills users make different mate choices, on average, compared to non-users. "Only short-term but not long-term partner preferences tend to vary with the menstrual cycle"II) People often report partner preferences that are not compatible with their choices in real life. (Behavioural recommender systems or other system that learns your preferences are useless at all!)III) What is important in attracting people to one another may not be important in making couples happy. Compatibility is all about a high level on personality similarity between prospective mates for long term mating with commitment.

Personality Based Recommender Systems are the next generation of recommender systems because they perform FAR better than Behavioural ones (past actions and pattern of personal preferences)That is the only way to improve recommender systems, to include the personality traits of their users.Have you seen they need to calculate personality similarity between users?Have you seen there are different formulas to calculate similarity?In case you did not notice, recommender systems are morphing to ………. compatibility matching engines!!!They mostly use the Big5 to assess personality and the Pearson correlation coefficient to calculate similarity, and can not break the online dating sound barrier.WorldWide, there are over 5,000 -five thousand- online dating sitesbut no one is using the 16PF5 (or similar) to assess personality of its members!but no one calculates similarity with a quantized pattern comparison method!but no one can show Compatibility Distribution Curves to each and every of its members!but no one is scientifically proven!

What comes after Social Networking?My bet: The Next Big Investment Opportunity on the Internet will be …. Personalization!Personality Based Recommender Systems and Strict Personality Based Compatibility Matching Engines for serious Online Dating with the normative 16PF5 personality test. The market remain enormous!!

Sunday, October 14, 2012

1- Lawyers: Since some years ago I had been assisting lawyers who sue online dating sites for fake/inactive profiles, sending them screenshots and other valuable information. I will continue and incentivize them during 2013.2- Consumers' Associations: Since some years ago I had been denouncing several online dating sites for fraud at several Consumers' Associations worldwide. I will continue.3- Journalists: I continually contact the writers / journalists who write articles in several newspapers/magazines sending them my point of view, saying why the entire Online Dating Industry for serious daters in 1st World Countries is a HOAX, performing as a Big Online Casino, with a low effectiveness/efficiency level of their matching algorithms (less than 10%).4- Researchers: Since 2005 I had been heavily contacting Academics. All the new and fresh research is over my desk. Nearly all the Researchers know who I am.

5- Executives from old competitors and newbies: I had contacted all of them and they are very comfortable attracting, converting and retaining subscribers with automatic renewal of their subscriptions and other credit-card billing trickery, than offering a good compatibility matching method. It seems they really do not want to innovate.

6- Some dissatisfied daters from eHarmony, True, Meetic, Parship, Chemistry, PerfectMatch, PlentyOfFish, Be2, and other sites had been contacting me with complaints. I encourage them to denounce those dating sites in Consumers' Associations.7- Investors: I had been contacting them since 2001. They had been fascinated by social networking utilities and mobile applications but very few had invested in online dating sites.

8- White-Hat Hackers, the good ones: I am not involved with them but I suspect they read my blog.

Predictions:

IAC's Personals: OkCupid, Chemistry and MeeticAffinity, in decadence since years.Most probably the IAC will launch a new compatibility (personality profiling) site, using copycats of the 16PF5 test in different languages.I had challenged them to offer compatibility distribution curves.I will be posting screenshots and insightful comments soon.

PlentyOfFish (POF) will be sold with its bunch of employees, before its business model collapse due to migration to mobile (without paying subscriptions and without seeing ads).PlentyOfFish, the wolf in sheep's clothing, had been only making noise in the Online Dating Industry, but it can not revolutionize nothing. It failed to be the next free eHarmony with its PlentyOfFish Chemistry Predictor, then renamed to the PlentyOfFish Marriage Predictor, then renamed again PlentyOfFish Chemistry Predictor, then failed with eVow, its entirely paid proposal, then will fail with its new paid UltraMatch feature, a Behavioural Recommendation Engine which never performed as expected, and nearly nobody pays for that feature.

True and PerfectMatch will be game over, they both failed to be reconverted (and this time forever)

Badoo will be revealed as a big fraud, full of inactive and fake profiles.Social Dating is a complete waste of time because "social networks" are for meeting the people you know in advance, not for meeting new people for dating or make new friends. There are 2 papers "The Anatomy of the Facebook Social Graph" and "Four Degrees of Separation" cited in the article "Facebook users average 4.74 degrees of separation"

The only way to revolutionize the Online Dating Industry is using the 16PF5 normative personality test, available in different languages to assess personality of members, or a proprietary test with exactly the same traits of the 16PF5 and expressing compatibility with eight decimals (needs a quantized pattern comparison method, part of pattern recognition by cross-correlation, to calculate similarity between prospective mates.)

The summer will begin next 21st December here in South America, with January the hottest month. The wind blowing from the North is very, very hot. If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, see why your brain distorts.

What comes after Social Networking?My bet: The Next Big Investment Opportunity on the Internet will be .... Personalization!Personality Based Recommender Systems and Strict Personality Based Compatibility Matching Engines for serious Online Dating with the normative 16PF5 personality test. The market remain enormous!!

High precision in matching algorithms is precisely the key to open the door and leave the infancy of compatibility testing.It is all about achieving the eighth decimal!With 8 decimals, you have more precision than any person could achieve by searching on one's own, but the only way to achieve the eighth decimal is using analysis and correlation with quantized patterns.

------------------What comes after Social Networking?My bet: The Next Big Investment Opportunity on the Internet will be .... Personalization!Personality
Based Recommender Systems and Strict Personality Based Compatibility
Matching Engines for serious Online Dating with the normative 16PF5
personality test. The market remain enormous!!

"Personality Similarities Predict Relationship Satisfaction in 23 Countries"Erina Lee, Gian Gonzaga, and Emily M. Maywood (from eHarmony Labs)Studies show that similarity between couples is positively related to relationship quality. The purpose of the current study is to fully investigate personality similarity in close relationships using 3 types of similarity (couple similarity – similarity between partners only, cultural similarity – similarity between others only, and shared similarity – similarity with both partners and others). Being uniquely similar to one's partner was expected to increase satisfaction especially in countries valuing similarity amongst ingroup members (e.g., collectivistic countries); while being similar to one's partner and others in society was thought to ease relationship functioning across all countries. To fully investigate these types of similarity, we studied 16,393 heterosexual, romantic couples across 23 countries. Similarities were estimated using profile correlations. Then principle components analysis and residuals were computed as percentages of variance explained by the three similarity types. Across all countries, positive assortment was found with couples being more similar to one another than to other people. Three-level HLM analyses revealed, as expected, that couple similarity predicted relationship satisfaction more powerfully in countries that were collectivistic. Additionally, cultural similarity predicted relationship satisfaction better in more individualistic countries. Shared similarity was equally important in predicting satisfaction independent of individualism/collectivism. This study lends further support for personality similarity as a predictor of relationship satisfaction showing that similarity has far reaching but differential impact for couples around the world. It also demonstrates that multiple components of similarity benefit relationships. The methodological and psychological impacts of these results are discussed.

"Couple Similarity in Attachment Style and its Association with Relationship Satisfaction"Fay Julal, Jodie Bellchambers, Katie O'Shea, and Lara WebberCompared to other personality constructs, attachment style similarity is a strong predictor of relationship quality (Luo & Klohnen, 2005). Preference for similarity in attachment style may be more salient at different points in a relationship (e.g., initial attraction vs. longer term; Holmes & Johnson, 2009). In the present study, we used a couple-centred approach to examine the extent to which actor (own) and partner's attachment style (avoidance, anxiety) and similarity in attachment style within couples (assessed with profile similarity correlations; PSC) predicted actor's relationship satisfaction. Further, we examined whether relationship length moderated the association between similarity in attachment style and relationship satisfaction. Each member of a heterosexual couple (N = 105 couples; M relationship length= 46.08-months) completed the ECR-Short Form and the PRQC relationship satisfaction scale. For actors (male and female couple members, separately) low avoidance and high PSC–anxiety predicted relationship satisfaction. Partner's attachment style did not predict actor's satisfaction. Relationship length did not moderate the attachment similarity-satisfaction relationship. The extent to which couple members were similar in attachment anxiety predicted relationship satisfaction. Actor's avoidance predicted relationship satisfaction. These findings suggest that each attachment dimension contributes to relationship functioning in distinct ways (e.g., intra- and interpersonal processes). Findings are discussed in terms of the salience of attachment anxiety and avoidance beyond initial attraction in predicting relationship quality.

"What Leads to Romantic Attraction: Similarity, Reciprocity, Security, or Beauty? Evidence from a Speed-Dating Study"Shanhong LuoYears of attraction research has established several "principles" of attraction with robust evidence. However, a major limitation of previous attraction studies is that they have almost exclusively relied on well-controlled experiments, which are often criticized for lacking ecological validity. This study was designed to test the evidence for four attraction principles in a real-life setting—speed-dating. Social Relations Model analyses showed strong evidence for the beauty principle; that is, partners' physical attractiveness (i.e., beauty) was the best predictor of initial romantic attraction for both sexes. There was partial support for the reciprocity and security principles; that is, people were more attracted to partners who also liked them (reciprocity) and who were emotionally secure (security). Surprisingly, there was no evidence for similarity—people were not particularly attracted to those who were similar to themselves.

(REMEMBER "Perceptions of Ideal and Former Partners' Personality and Similarity"Pieternel Dijkstra / Dick P. H. Barelds / University of Groningen, The Netherlandsshe
had written "our study showed that individuals did not rate similarity
in personality as very important when seeking a mate. Our findings may
help understand why so many relationships end in divorce due to
mismatches in personality.""The
present study's results, as well as the results found in previous
studies (e.g., Eastwick & Finkel, 2008), may be used to educate
people, especially singles, about what really matters in long-term relationships, for instance, similarity in personality, instead of complementarity."

The Online Dating Industry needs innovations but they will come from only one source: the latest discoveries in theories of romantic relationships development with commitment.Only 3 major discoveries can help to revolutionize the online dating industry.I) Several studies showing contraceptive pills users make different mate choices, on average, compared to non-users. “Only short-term but not long-term partner preferences tend to vary with the menstrual cycle”II) People often report partner preferences that are not compatible with their choices in real life. (FORGET Behavioural recommender systems or other system that learns your preferences because they are useless at all!)III) What is important in attracting people to one another may not be important in making couples happy.Compatibility is all about a high level on personality similarity between prospective mates for long term mating with commitment. )

"Upon Further Review, (Actual) Similarity is a Poor Predictor of Interpersonal Attraction: Theoretical Review, Empirical Evidence, and Implications for Commercial Matching Algorithms"Eli Finkel, Paul Eastwick, and Natasha TidwellThe similarity–attraction effect stands as one of the most well-known findings in social psychology; indeed, it is sufficiently entrenched that textbook authors frequently adopt Byrne's phrase "law of attraction" to describe the positive linear association of similarity with interpersonal attraction. Despite the widespread view that similarity predicts attraction, however, evidence is emerging that this effect is robust for perceived similarity, but sporadic and weak for actual similarity. This presentation reports the results of the first-ever study to examine the effects of actual and perceived similarity simultaneously during a face-to-face initial romantic encounter. Lending particularly strong support to the emerging view that (actual) similarity is much less relevant to interpersonal attraction than long assumed, results revealed that perceived, but not actual, similarity significantly predicted romantic liking. These results have important implications for commercial dating services (e.g., eHarmony) that depend upon actual similarity as a crucial predictor of both attraction and long-term relationship well-being: If there is compelling reason to doubt whether there is a robust association of actual similarity with relationship outcomes, then using the principle of similarity as the foundation for a matching algorithm may be ill- advised.(REMEMBER An exercise of similarity. and How LIFEPROJECT METHOD calculates similarity WorldWide, there are over 5,000 -five thousand- online dating sitesbut no one is using the 16PF5 (or similar) to assess personality of its members!but no one calculates similarity with a quantized pattern comparison method!but no one can show Compatibility Distribution Curves to each and every of its members!but no one is scientifically proven! )

"The Long-term Effects of Your Own and Your Romantic Partner's Personality on Relationship Satisfaction and Dissolution"Brittany C. Solomon and Joshua J. JacksonAttaining a romantic relationship is an important goal for most adults, with significant implications, given that romantic relationships are associated with wellbeing and physical health (Reis, Collins, & Berscheid, 2000). Consequentially, it is important to know what sustains healthy and satisfied relationships and the factors that lead to relationship dissolution. An important predictor of relationship satisfaction is the personality traits of each person in the relationship (Dyrenforth, Kashy, Donnellan, & Lucas, 2010). In other words, beyond a person's own personality, his/her partner's personality also influences their relationship satisfaction. However, little is known about the long-term effects of partner personality, as most research is cross-sectional. In the current study we used data collected over 4 years from a sample of 3,198 married (or defacto) couples (6,396 individuals) to investigate several questions. For instance, we find that actor and partner personality traits predict relationship satisfaction across four years. Moreover, actor and partner personality were also used to predict relationship dissolution. In addition we examined how changes in personality across four years may influence relationship satisfaction and if these changes in personality precede a break up. Overall, we found evidence that one's own personality and their partner's personality play a significant role in relationship satisfaction and dissolution. Interestingly, these findings suggest that both stability and change in personality traits influence important relationship outcomes. Further investigation of personality and relationship satisfaction over time may shed more light on the extent to which these dyadic factors influence long-term life outcomes (e.g., wellbeing and physical health).(REMEMBERStability and change of personality across the life coursePersonality traits are highly stable in persons over 25 years old to 45 years old (the group of persons who could be most interested in serious online dating) They have only minor changes in personality (less than 1 interval in a normative test) and
the 16PF5 test will not "see" them because the output of the 16PF5 test
are 16 variables STens (Standard Tens) taking integer values from 1 to
10. STens divide the score scale into ten units. STens have the
advantage that they enable results to be thought of in terms of bands of
scores, rather than absolute raw scores. These bands are narrow enough
to distinguish statistically significant differences between candidates,
but wide enough not to over emphasize minor differences between
candidates.)

"Facebook Relationship Status: It's Complicated"Camilla Overup, Mai-Ly Nguyen, Julie Brunson, and Linda K Acitelli... individuals in good relationships are generally honest about their relationship status on Facebook and that this association occurs because people in good relationships generally have positive reasons for being truthful about their relationships. Negative reasons (e.g. "keep others from knowing") were not significant as a mediator, but predicted failure to reveal actual relationship status independently of relationship quality. Although positive relationship quality predicts displaying one's relationship status publically, it may not be the only reason why people post as they do. For some, making one's commitment public interferes with other needs. External concerns, such as the desire for privacy, may determine whether one chooses to reveal one’s relationship status.

"Why Time Spent on Facebook is Linked to Depression"Mai-Ly Nguyen, Robert E Wickham, and Linda K. Acitelli... Facebook may serve as a platform for men to engage in intrasexual competitive social comparisons such that, the more time men spend on Facebook the more likely they are to compete with other males and feel inadequate when comparing their accomplishments to those of their peers. Time spent on Facebook did not predict women's outcomes in the same way. Perhaps women use Facebook as a way to maintain connections with their friends rather than compete with them.

------------------------------

What comes after Social Networking?My bet: The Next Big Investment Opportunity on the Internet will be .... Personalization!Personality
Based Recommender Systems and Strict Personality Based Compatibility
Matching Engines for serious Online Dating with the normative 16PF5
personality test. The market remain enormous!!

Monday, October 8, 2012

Recently Barron's CEO Spotlight had published an article about the IAC, where its CEO talks about its vision.It was funny because:During the tenure of Tim Sullivan as CEO, Match entered the compatibility matching era with WeAttract's test.During the tenure of Jim Safka, the IAC (Match) launched Chemistry (the last innovation at Match, it was during 2005).During the tenure of Thomas Enraght-Mooney, the IAC acquired 27% stake in Meetic but lost the war in Europe.During the tenure of Greg Blatt, the IAC bought some online dating sites like PeopleMedia's Communities, SinglesNet, YahooPersonals unit, OkCupid, 81.07% of Meetic BUT no innovation since years.

Exactly one year ago, at Goldman Sachs 20th Annual Communacopia Conference, the actual IAC's CEO had talked about Personals.

"IAC has been very acquisitive in Personals"Yes, they had acquired rotten companies, like SinglesNet, People Media Communities, OkCupid; even Meetic, they all are like pieces of different puzzles, not different pieces of the same puzzle.

"IAC does not share databases across websites, with larger opportunity stemming not from combination but from separate growth. Mr. Blatt mentioned that going forward that approach may change and some bundling may be implemented."Those databases are like pieces of different puzzles. Over 70% of Match profiles are fake or inactive and Chemistry is a 7+ years old obsolete site based on a Scientific HOAX."Mr. Blatt mentioned that there is tremendous innovation in the dating space from video to mobile to distribution across social (highlighting that no one has quite tackled social yet). He feels IAC’s Personals does not have many holes left to fill and internal development going forward is more likely; new tech is deployed globally after proving effectiveness in core market."Ha, ha, ha, ha. That is exactly the same Tim Sullivan, former CEO of Match, said during 2003!

The entire Online Dating Industry for serious daters in 1st World Countries is a HOAX, performing as a Big Online Casino, with low successful rates.

Online Dating for serious daters does not need to be more social, it needs to be more effective/efficient. It needs to reduce the false positives problem.Innovations are not adding more bells and whistles to actual online dating sites.The Online Dating Industry needs innovations but they will come from only one source: the latest discoveries in theories of romantic relationships development with commitment.Compatibility is all about a high level on personality* similarity* between prospective mates for long term mating with commitment.*personality measured with a normative test.*similarity: there are different ways to calculate similarity, it depends on how mathematically is defined.STRICT PERSONALITY SIMILARITY and not "meet other people with similar interests"

What comes after Social Networking?My bet: The Next Big Investment Opportunity on the Internet will be .... Personalization!Personality Based Recommender Systems and Strict Personality Based Compatibility Matching Engines for serious Online Dating with the normative 16PF5 personality test. The market remain enormous!!

The Simpsons, Apple, Facebook, LinkedIn, WordPress, Google, Hotmail,
Yahoo, YouTube, Blogger, Wikipedia, Bing, Twitter, Skype are BIG successes in
Argentina!!!I have the theory that if something is successful in Argentina, it could be a success in the World.
If it can NOT be a success here in Argentina, it will definitely NOT be a success in the World.
NO
online dating company (for serious daters) has success here in Argentina nor Brazil or other Latin American country.

#63 eHarmony is a 12+ years old obsolete site, and a HOAX. Recently they made a mistake and revealed eHarmony's secret sauce. (the effectiveness/efficiency of the matching algorithm.)"99.7% of eHarmony’s members will not be introduced to you (translated from the failed Japanese site)", i.e. only 0.3% of members will be shown as a compatible partner for you; that is the power of eHarmony's matching algorithm (the effectiveness/efficiency of the matching algorithm.)0.3% means: 3 persons per 1,000 persons screened in the same range as searching by your own! eHarmony’s matching algorithm performs really as placebo.

#97 As for PlentyOfFish, its compatibility matching predictor is a HOAX and the entire site is a MESS, the owners are conducting a big human experiment with unprecedented consequences and should be denounced in several Consumers' Associations Worldwide.